Pulissery (Morozhichukootaan / Morukootaan) - Malabar Cucumber cooked with coconut paste with butter milk added...

Pulisshery or Morozhichukootaan or Morukootaan is a speciality dish of Kerala and consists of one or 2 cooked vegetables with buttermilk and coconut paste as the base gravy. Usually sour buttermilk is used to prepare this dish which gives it a yummy tangy flavour which greatly awakens our taste buds and the stomach's digestive fluids, thereby we making us yearn for more :)

It is actually sweet as well as sour - sour taste, however, dominates...

Malabar cucumber

Pulisshery can be made with different vegetables such as cucumber, Malabar cucumber, ripe mangoes, raw papaya, ash gourd etc. Here we have used Malabar cucumber.

It is a low calorie vegetable with about 85% water content. Its highly recommend as it aids digestion, eliminates toxins from the body and  carries numerous other health benefits such as reduction of cholesterol, promotes hair growth, aids in weight loss, helps in eye care etc.

Its is an excellent source of potassium, calcium, protein, vitamin C, vitamin K, fiber and anti-oxidants.

Ingredients:

Ash gourd or  raw papaya or cucumber or malabar cucumber - 250 gms (the one we have described below is prepared using Malabar cucumber).

Butter milk - 2 glasses (300 ml)

Grated coconut- 1/2 cup

Cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

Green chilles - 2  nos

Curry leaves - 6-8 leaves

Chilly powder- 1/2 teaspoon

Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Mustard - 1 teaspoon

Fenugreek seeds- 1/4 teaspoon

Dry red chillies - 2-3 nos

Salt  to taste

Process:

Chop  the malabar cucumber into small cubes (approximately 2 cm of each side). In case you are using any other vegetable listed above, except ripe mango, the chop size and shape should be the similar to this. Add 2 glasses of water while cooking.  Put  1/2 teaspoon of turmeric 1/2 teaspoon of  chilly powder, salt  and cook in a low flame. 

Separateky, grind the grated coconut, cumin seeds  and  green chillies into a paste. Keep this aside.

Once the cucumber is cooked,  put  the coconut paste into the it and stir it well in low flame. Once this mix of cooked cucumber and coconut-cumin seeds-green chilies paste boils, switch off the flame and add the butter milk into it, stirring it continuously. 

Its important to keep stirring the mix while adding the buttermilk to avoid the buttermilk getting separated/curled up due to overheating. 

Keep Aside.

Tempering:

Take a small frying pan and pour 2 tablespoons of oil into it. Once the oil is hot, put 2  teaspoons of mustard into it. Once the mustard completely splutters, add 2-3 broken dry red chillies, 2 teaspoons of Fenugreek seeds and the curry leaves. Stir till the fenugreek turns dark brown. Add this complete mix into the curry that was kept ready aside.

The pictures below show the steps: 

Pulisshery is ready. Serves 4...

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